Command and control systems include systems for controlling complex technological situations, such as control of weapons systems in a combat environment or simulation. These command and control systems may be exceedingly complex, because they may integrate inputs from diverse and numerous systems which are themselves complex systems. For example, a theatre command and control system may evaluate a large region of the globe, integrating inputs relating to visual observations, radar and sonar targets, infrared and other inputs from ships, aircraft and other vehicles in and around the region, and from fixed stations, and from a headquarters, to command and control various defensive and offensive weapons systems. It will be understood that such command and control systems must be very reliable.
In the prior art, such systems were built up by assigning various portions of the system to design groups. Each design group would then be responsible for completion of a particular portion of the command and control system. For example, FIG. 1 illustrates, in simplified form, a portion 10 of a prior art command and control system. In FIG. 1, the portion includes a plurality of sensors. In particular, FIG. 1 illustrates a radar sensor 12, an acoustic sensor 14, and an electronic warfare sensor system 16. These sensors are coupled, in some cases by bidirectional signal paths, to a track management portion 18 of the command and control system 10. In this context, the term “track” represents one “target” or other entity, such as a friendly aircraft. In radar terms, both friendly and unfriendly entities are termed “targets” or “tracks.” The “track” terminology is used preferentially herein, but does not, in general, refer to the trajectory or path taken by a target, but rather refers to the current state or data configuration of the target. The track management portion 18, in turn, communicates by bidirectional paths with a command and decision system 20. The command and decision system 20, in turn, communicates with a plurality of weapons systems, two of which are illustrated as 22 and 24. Those interconnections in FIG. 1 which are not explicitly illustrated are represented by an asterisk-like arrow symbol 8. It will be appreciated that a complex system of this sort may include hundreds or thousands of subsystems such as those illustrated in FIG. 1, and a very large number of interconnections. During the design and integration phase of the construction of the command and control system of FIG. 1, the design teams for the various portions 21, 14, 16, 18, 20, 22, and 24 communicate with the members of the design teams for the adjacent portions of the system, in order to assure that the signals passing therebetween are sufficient to enable the processing in the adjacent systems, and compatible therewith. As a result of these interactions, each designer or team becomes very cognizant of the performance characteristics of the next adjacent elements of the command and control system being designed and manufactured. This knowledge tends to cause the “edges” of the various elements to merge or blend together, so that the command and control system tends to become a unitary whole. The blending of the system into a whole is generally a good thing, in that such a system tends to operate seamlessly, without artifacts associated with different modes of operation. An unobvious disadvantage of such a seamless system, however, is that it is difficult to make piecemeal improvements to single portions of the system. More particularly, the design of such an integrated system tends to be custom-made in each interface region. If an improved design for a particular portion or element of the overall command and control system 10 is desired at a time after the involved design personnel have gone on to other work, or after sufficient time for them to forget details of the various interfaces, the effort required to “re-engineer” that system portion to be upgraded to determine how it works at least has the effect of greatly increasing the cost of such an improvement. Even when the original designers are available, if the change requires new functionality, the integration makes change-out difficult and expensive.
Improved command and control systems are desired.